Once Upon A Time In Smallville
by lilkawa
Summary: Eobard Thawne has somehow ended up in an asylum in Smallville and there he meets Tempus: their mission is to destroy Superman and The Flash


_Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman_ and _The Flash_ don't belong to me.

 **Once Upon A Time In Smallville**

Eobard Thawne looked around the room in dismay. He was in a prison of sorts.

While he was grateful that he hadn't died, or more likely disappeared into oblivion he wished he was somewhere else. Once again, Eddie had managed to mess up. Since he'd traveled back in time to stop Barry Allen, and found that his great, great, great grandfather Eddie Thawne was somehow a part of Barry Allen's life, he'd wanted to remove him but he had decided to let nature take its course, to allow Eddie to meet and even date Iris West, he'd hoped that relationship would affect The Flash, Barry Allen, so deeply that he would get off track, of course while keeping on track to getting him home again. But he'd been wrong, about many things, but especially about Eddie. Eddie had managed to surprise him and that is how he had ended up in this awful place.

He wished he had kept Eddie hidden in the basement; 'I should have dragged him, or taken him to Grandma Esther's cabin,' but he hadn't wanted to take that chance. He knew Barry would have found him sooner if he'd taken him out of S.T.A.R Labs. He couldn't believe Eddie had shot himself and if his very survival didn't depend on Eddie's being alive; Eobard swore to himself that when he made it back to Central City, and he would, he would shoot Eddie himself.

A sigh alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone in the small, dark, dirty room. He turned and saw a big man, with a head full of black hair, dusted with grey at the temple, wearing the same strange greyish overall that he himself was wearing standing in the corner of the room.

"I saw you appear a while back," the stranger told him.

Eobard grunted; he didn't want to talk to anyone, and he had hoped that his appearance had gone unnoticed.

"You're not from these parts," the man said, "I can always tell when a man is out of his time."

"What is this place?" Eobard couldn't help asking the stranger.

"Smallville, 1866," the man laughed, he had strange laugh. "Herb has a sense of humour."

Eobard knew that asking questions would only encourage the strange man to keep talking but if he was to get out of there he figured that he would need help; and who better than his cellmate.

"Smallville, you say?" he asked, he'd heard of it of course. Everybody in the future knew of Smallville, the place where Superman had grown up. "Who's Herb?"

"H.G. Wells," the man replied.

"Of course," Eobard nodded, "he invented the time machine." Every student of time travel knew about H.G. Wells. "I thought he died years ago."

"No," the man shook his head, "he's a time traveler, you know, he just left his universe for a while."

"Of course," Eobard said again, it made perfect sense. H.G. Wells was just enjoying himself traveling around in his time machine; he wished his life was that simple. "If I may, why did he bring you to Smallville?"

The stranger was silent for so long that Eobard thought he wasn't going to tell him and then the man began his story. His name was Tempus, and he'd come from the future, a very boring future that Superman and his descendants had created, a Utopia. Tempus was not happy with the future where there were no guns, no crime and nothing happening that he'd decided to go back in time and kill Superman, as a child. Eobard could appreciate the man's logic; after all he'd had the same idea.

"What happened?" he asked Tempus.

"I underestimated Herb, and of course Lois Lane," Tempus admitted, "but I won't be making that mistake again."

Eobard shared his story with his new friend; and as expected Tempus told him that he should have just killed Barry when he had the chance.

"But I wanted to go back home," Eobard argued.

"You're a genius, or so you say," Tempus told him, "you'd have adapted and learned to enjoy the 21st century; instead you're stuck here now."

"I see your point," Eobard conceded, "but I wanted to match my skills against him, to fight him and win, killing a child wouldn't have achieved that."

"You're a fairer man than I man," Tempus told him, "because when I get out of here, if I find a baby Clark Kent I'm killing him, failing that I'm killing his adoptive parents."

"You know I killed Nora Allen," Eobard told him, "it didn't have the effect I thought it would on Barry; he was hurt, angry for sure but still the most well-adjusted young man I've ever met."

"You sound like you admire him," Tempus commented.

"I do," Eobard agreed. "But I see your point; maybe I should have killed Joe and Iris as well."

"Who are those?" Tempus had been consumed with the idea of killing Superman most of his life, that he'd never bothered to learn about people that were unconnected to him. "Barry's foster parents?"

"Joe's his foster dad of sorts, Barry's real father is still in prison for killing his mother, and Iris is Joe's daughter."

"They gave him a home, didn't they, and stability?" Tempus asked.

Eobard nodded. As he thought of Tempus' words, they made perfect sense, instead of killing Barry; he would remove his support system. It would surely turn him into the worst version of himself and surely off the path of becoming The Flash.

"Does the kid love this Iris person?"

"Yes," Eobard said, "and they get married."

"She's the key," Tempus told him, "so when we get out of here and travel to 2000, you have to kill Barry's parents and this Iris as well. That will do the trick."

"And you, who are you getting rid of?"

"Lois Lane," Tempus said promptly, "according to the history books they met in Metropolis 1993, so I will there before they meet and get her out of the picture."

"Metropolis?" Eobard said, "I have never been there."

"What say you?" Tempus asked his new friend, "we take a trip to Metropolis 1993 take care of Lois Lane and then to Central City 2000 and take care of Iris West?"

Eobard thought of it for a moment and then smiled. "Now all we have to do is get a way of out this joint."

"Like you said, you're a genius," Tempus reminded him, "I'm sure you'd have figured it in not time."

Eobard nodded and looked around the room, they would need to escape from the Asylum but that wouldn't be hard, the hard part would be building a time machine in 1866. He smiled, he loved a challenge.

000


End file.
